Blog Down–But a New Blog Is Up

by Pejman Yousefzadeh on December 12, 2012

So, last night, WordPress demanded one of its periodic updates. I complied, only to find out that I had lost my Visual Editor screen and my media buttons, all of which would make regular blogging here a pain. There may be some fix for all of this, but neither I nor the technical staff here at A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days–and yes, there is a technical staff–can seem to find one. What’s more, we are not inclined to waste time trying to find one when more productive things–like, you know, blogging–could be taking place.

As such, I think that the best thing to do is to leave this blog up as an archive site, and instead move all of my blogging over to my eponymous Tumblr on a permanent basis. Said eponymous Tumblr can be found here.

Maybe this is just me trying to make lemonade out of the lemons WordPress has forced upon me, but this can end up being a very good thing. Unlike WordPress, Tumblr allows for easy reblogging, which means that I can generate content throughout the day merely by using my iPhone. Reblogging will allow me to bring to readers’ attention interesting non-political stories, and it will allow me to indulge my somewhat whimsical side as well. Tumblr will further allow me to indulge my whimsical side thanks to its integration with other forms of social media like Instagram. At the same time, of course, one can write longform on Tumblr just as well as one can on WordPress, so it is not as though my longform political pieces are going to go the way of the dinosaur. And reblogging will allow me to quickly and easily bring to readers’ attention political pieces as well; there are a whole host of political/news publications that have established a presence on Tumblr, which means that those who dip their feet into the waters of the Tumblrverse will not lack for information and opinions on the issues of the day. Additionally–and this certainly counts for something–my Tumblr site loads very quickly and easily, and comes with a mobile version that you can access without problems on your smartphones. And if you want to get the standard view of the site on your smartphones, you can do that as well. Finally, Tumblr allows readers to ask questions of the owners/editors of Tumblr blogs, which means that you as readers can–with questions that are interesting, informative, and not rude/insulting–start up threads of your own concerning important topics.

So, it’s goodbye to Chequer-Board, which I shall miss, and hello to my eponymous Tumblr. I thank you all for taking the time to read this blog, and I look forward to seeing all of you on the flip side. Oh, and by the way, if you have a Tumblr blog of your own, be sure to follow mine.